Novice nurse no-nos

Farawyn · May 15, 2015

Have you made mistakes, been spoken to, etc? Or is it a time management/lack of confidence thing?

Coffee Nurse, BSN, RN · May 15, 2015

The best way to ask questions is to not worry about being annoying :up: Seriously though, if you don't know, ask. Much better to temporarily annoy someone (who shouldn't be getting annoyed, anyway) than to permanently hurt someone else.

NeoNatMom · May 15, 2015

I'm a new student but look up these things on my spare time too. Best advice, be quick, clear, and concise when telling your physicians and fellow nurses information they ask of you. No beating around the bush.

tsm007 · May 15, 2015

Have you made mistakes, been spoken to, etc? Or is it a time management/lack of confidence thing?

No med mistakes. I did make some assessment mistakes - I was not smooth and missed some questions I should have been asking. I forgot to ask things like headaches, bowel movements, and a more detailed skin assessment. I made the mistake of doing some things the way I saw it done at my last facility and that is clearly a no-go here. And I didn't go literally head to toe and got heart and lung sounds last so I guess that didn't display confidence that I know what I'm doing. I haven't made that mistake since though. I just want to make sure I am sending out the right message. I of course lack confidence. Confidence comes with experience and I don't care what people have to say about that. I think I would be reckless to be too confident right out of school. I can be professional and confident in front of patients though but I'm trying to balance the asking the "what do you think" questions with making some decisions by myself.

mmc51264, BSN, MSN, RN · May 15, 2015

There is no such thing as a stupid question.

Lev, MSN, RN, NP · May 15, 2015

See this thread....https://allnurses.com/general-nursing-discussion/help-i-have-988742.html

LOL

Don't do that.

You are like me. I may not "get it" right away, but with time I will get it and get it well.

Be honest about your faults, but don't beat yourself up to your educator and manager. Don't apologize profusely for being a challenging orientee. *My mistakes* (Among others)

Express that you are willing to learn and ask for feedback daily. Have your preceptor tell you what you did well, what you didn't do so well, and what you should focus on improving for the next shift. Did you meet your goals?

Keep in mind, that your preceptor is not your only resource. Seek out the educator, manager, other seasoned nurses etc.

Be familiar with hospital policy and procedure. When you follow policy, there is no going wrong. Express you interest in reviewing hospital policy with your preceptor. Print out policies from the intranet and review them and ask any questions you have to your preceptor and educator.

Be open to feedback, be honest, and don't be too hard on yourself. You should do fine :)

tsm007 · May 16, 2015

Be familiar with hospital policy and procedure. When you follow policy, there is no going wrong. Express you interest in reviewing hospital policy with your preceptor. Print out policies from the intranet and review them and ask any questions you have to your preceptor and educator.

That is one thing that is driving me nuts! There policies are hard to access. They're not on the intranet. You have to physically go find them and they don't have crystal clear policies on lots of things that I think they should or rather things that I'm used to having a policy to reference. I have kept my opinion on this to myself for now because I don't want to be the nurse that is habitually complaining about things and I know that people don't want to hear "at my last place.... we did it this way...."

Thanks for all your great advice! You were very helpful!

Daisy_08, BSN, RN · May 16, 2015

Use critical judgment, aka common sense. I always hear people say 'well that's not the way its done here' or 'Nurse X did it this way, so I must to'. Just because there is a rule or even a policy in place, critical thinking still must come first. For example, the policy says to run X drug so fast but your little 98yo's site might blow, you can slow it down. Or just because your bitter about doing bedside TOAs doesn't mean you can't tell sensitive information in the hall.

Skills and assessments will come with time, critical thinking will grow with experience, but good judgment is often there, or not.

tsm007 · May 16, 2015

Use critical judgment, aka common sense. I always hear people say 'well that's not the way its done here' or 'Nurse X did it this way, so I must to'. Just because there is a rule or even a policy in place, critical thinking still must come first. For example, the policy says to run X drug so fast but your little 98yo's site might blow, you can slow it down. Or just because your bitter about doing bedside TOAs doesn't mean you can't tell sensitive information in the hall.
Skills and assessments will come with time, critical thinking will grow with experience, but good judgment is often there, or not.

That's great advice too. I hadn't thought about it from that perspective. Thanks!

ilikesharpthings · May 16, 2015

What does :up: mean? I see this a lot, colons on either side of a word and I can't figure out what it means! ðŸ˜‹

Red Kryptonite · May 16, 2015

What does mean? I see this a lot, colons on either side of a word and I can't figure out what it means! ðŸ˜‹

On the desktop site, it's a thumbs up emoticon, but it doesn't show up properly on the mobile apps.